1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the transmission of data between two devices via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method for executing streaming data transfer using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)/Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which have conventionally been used for file transfer, is known as a conventional technique for streaming. Depending on the state of the network, delay may occur due to congestion when streaming using this method. Accordingly, there is a technique that calculates a normal reproduction time of video packets held in a client buffer based on a frame number and a framerate and furthermore computes a total reproduction time for the contents of the buffer, and determines a video reproduction speed in accordance with the lengths of the times (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-244097). Meanwhile, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-164537 discloses deleting all of the data within a terminal buffer in order to reduce delay when performing remote operations from the terminal.
However, although Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-244097 does lengthen the reproduction time in the case where a worsening in the network state makes data transfer difficult, the client-side buffer nevertheless will ultimately overflow. In addition, although Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-164537 reduces delay time and improves operability by deleting all of the server-side buffer data, a large amount of data held in the client-side buffer will be deleted entirely, and thus long, continuous videos will be deleted.